This Is Why the Pixel 3 Is a Verizon Exclusive

By
Sascha SeganOct. 10, 2018, 10:57 p.m.

Google's Pixel 3 will only be offered by Verizon and Google Fi. Why? There's only one answer that makes sense, and you're going to hate it.

Google this week unveiled its new Pixel phones, and people are once again wondering why they won't be available on every major carrier. There's only one answer that makes sense, and you're going to hate it: Google doesn't want to sell a lot of phones, and it never has.

Not everyone agrees with me on this, but just look at the evidence; it's the strategy Google has taken since the launch of its very first Nexus phone.

Here in the US, the new Pixel 3 phones will be offered by Verizon, Project Fi, and unlocked. It will be available on all major Canadian carriers, but Canada is a smaller and less prominent market than the US.

Google is in a tough, weird place with its Pixel phones. It always has been. Google's Android OS powers the vast majority of phones in the world, made by dozens of different companies. Google wants to make some great phones, clearly, but it also doesn't want to upset that apple cart. (So to speak.)

Remember, Google doesn't make a lot of money off hardware, and it doesn't really make money from Android. It makes money from Google services, so it needs everyone to be using Google services.

It's possible to use Android without Google services; just look at Chinese phone makers and Amazon's Fire tablets. Samsung has also made it very public, for nearly a decade, that it keeps another OS in its back pocket in case it gets tired of Google. (That OS keeps changing, but the strategy remains the same.)

So Google needs to make sure its partners continue putting Google Play Movies & TV and Google Search on their phones. Thus, it markets Pixels with a hand tied behind its back. It does a Verizon exclusive and doesn't relentlessly pound you with Pixel ads in your Google searches. It makes sure that Pixels are available, to be sure, but that they're not too available. It offers the industry an example of what it believes is Android excellence, but makes sure there's still room for everyone.

Pixel phones can always be read as subtweets at the rest of the Android world. Yes, they have great cameras. But the feature that read loudest to me this year was Google's Titan security model. Google is saying, through these Pixels, that it takes security very seriously, and that other Android manufacturers must do the same. Remember how hard Apple is slamming Google on security and privacy issues right now?

In the Pixels, Google is also trying to set the record straight on "AI," a term that is being roundly abused by various phone companies as a trendy way to set camera modes. With features like Google Duplex, Google is saying that AI really needs massively powerful cloud intelligence—which Google has and companies like Samsung and LG do not—so fall in line, guys, and remember you need Google.

What About Microsoft? What About HTC?

Now, you could ask, and you probably should—what about Microsoft? It seems to be aggressively "competing" against its Windows OS partners with its Surface lineup, and Dell and Asus don't seem too bothered.

The history of the PC landscape is very different from mobile. The idea of "competing against your platform provider" is baked into the PC market from the days of the first "IBM compatibles" in 1982. And unlike with AmazonDroid or ChinaDroid, there's never been a viable, licensable alternative to Windows for many desktop uses. Companies tried and failed with Linux for years, and Chrome OS just doesn't have the professional application base. PC manufacturers are simultaneously more dependent on Microsoft than phone makers are on Google, and more confident that they can compete.

So why did Google spend so much money buying a big chunk of HTC? Honestly, that perplexes me too. I can only think that Google's $1.1 billion purchase of HTC's design team is really more about non-phone devices like the Pixel Slate, Pixel Hub, and Chromecast. Amazon really stole a march from Google with its Alexa products, and Google has been hustling to catch up. I think it's caught up, but it doesn't want to be caught out again.

And remember: 5G is coming. 5G will upend the mobile market and create categories of products we don't expect yet. Google, certainly, wants to lead there. Rather than killing its partnerships for the defining product of the 2010s, I'd like to think that Google is preparing, hard, for the 2020s.

About the Author

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 9 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts of the daily PCMag Live Web show and speaks frequently in mass media on cell-phone-related issues. His commentary has appeared on ABC, the BBC, the CBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and in newspapers from San Antonio, Texas to Edmonton, Alberta.

Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer, having contributed to the Frommer's series of travel guides and Web sites for more than a decade. Other than his home town of New York, his favorite ... See Full Bio